Closing Paul Breaux is off the agenda, but not off the table

Facing intense community pushback, Lafayette school officials will not weigh closing Paul Breaux Middle School this week and will instead consider moving French Immersion and gifted programs from the campus, an outcome critics worry may nevertheless be fatal to the school. 

LPSS Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr. tells The Current Wednesday’s school board meeting will not include a plan to close the majority Black school, but that nothing is off the table as the system reevaluates its plans later this year in the face of a major revenue shift to charter schools (state per-pupil revenue follows the student). 

“There is no item whatsoever on the agenda to close Paul Breaux,” says Touchet. “There is an item to get a facilities planner … and what we are going to do is bring [it] back to the board in November and look at all schools to make sure all schools that are just not functioning at capacity are looked at as far as possible consolidation, possibly having to consolidate programs or cut out programs.”

But Wednesday’s meeting agenda indicates the school board will consider plans to move the parish’s middle school gifted and French Immersion programs out of Paul Breaux, which some believe is the start of an effort to shutter the school in the future. 

“They took it off the agenda for this time, but make no mistake, if those programs move, it’s a done deal next year,” said folklorist and French language advocate Barry Ancelet at a community meeting about the school’s future Monday.

“They’ve been spending money all around the parish,” Ancelet added. “Why not spend some here if they want to fix the problem? Making this kind of decision without input from this community — the community that would be directly affected — seems at the very least inconsiderate.”

Touchet says the moves are intended to increase efficiency as the school system grapples with the growing share of revenue being diverted to charter schools, which adds up to $30 million this year. Consolidating the system’s elementary gifted and French Immersion programs, plus eliminating its Chinese Immersion program are expected to save $1.5 million a year through personnel reductions, he says. 

The two programs at Paul Breaux Middle total about $950,000 in annual teacher costs, but it’s unclear how the proposed moves would save the system money since neither program would be consolidated with other offerings. Instead, the gifted program would relocate to Edgar Martin Middle on Broadmoor Boulevard while the French Immersion program would go to Scott Middle, miles away from the center of the parish. Approximately one-third to one-half of students expected to participate in those programs haven’t enrolled in them at Paul Breaux in the past three years, according to data from LPSS. 

They took it off the agenda for this time, but make no mistake, if those programs move, it’s a done deal next year.

French language advocate Barry Ancelet

Moving the programs stands to effectively gut Paul Breaux and remove opportunities for students at nearby schools, according to School Board Member Amy Trahan, whose District 4 includes Paul Breaux Middle. 

“We’re going to totally dismantle and cripple enrollment at Paul Breaux, and we’re going to increase it at another school,” Trahan said at a community meeting last week. “Let’s be very, very matter of fact. You are taking the program completely out of District 4 and bringing it to a whole different district on the other side of town. So if you wanted to move the program out of Paul Breaux, then why not keep it in District 4?”

The change would leave about 320 students at Paul Breaux, according to Touchet, putting it on par with Lafayette Middle and Acadian Middle, though Paul Breaux has significantly more capacity for students than either of those facilities since it was previously a high school. 

Trahan also questioned why the proposed moves are being put to the school board ahead of plans to hire a facilities consultant to evaluate options for the school system’s future, since that effort is also being considered at Wednesday’s board meeting. 

“Why would we not wait until that consultant comes in to be an external party to say, ‘Let me look at all of these numbers, and let’s look at the best route to take,’” she said. “Why would we not wait? Why would we press forward so quickly? And why would we have not brought this to the community so that the community can be involved in the decision-making process?”

Community involvement is one area where Touchet admits the school system dropped the ball, saying feedback over the potential closure of Paul Breaux Middle prompted LPSS to regroup. Going forward, he says communication and public engagement will be central to any substantial changes to the school system’s plans. 

“This is what I feel like we were missing, and it’s something with which we need to do a better job,” says Touchet, who took over the position on a permanent basis less than six months ago. “I want the community to understand that I want to engage with them. I want to listen to them. I am not a person that feels like I can run the school system without the community.”